Nom Nom, the fresh-frozen pet food brand operating within Mars Petcare, is launching Scoopable Meal Clusters — a format designed to eliminate the advance-defrost requirement that has long limited consumer uptake of the fresh-frozen dog food segment. The product made its trade debut at SuperZoo in Las Vegas on August 11 and will roll out to participating specialty retailers and e-commerce platforms nationwide.
The Format Shift
The clusters are engineered to be poured or scooped directly from a frozen bag and reach serving temperature on a countertop in approximately 15 minutes, removing the need to plan meals the night before — the primary friction point brand research identified in the category. Pet owners can reseal the bag and return it to the freezer, addressing the secondary pain point of post-open storage. The product functions as a complete main meal or as a topper and treat, giving retailers a versatile merchandising proposition.
Two recipes launch with the line: Chicken & Sweet Potato and Beef & Potato. Both meet AAFCO guidelines for complete and balanced nutrition across all life stages, positioning them alongside conventional premium dry and wet formats rather than as a supplemental product. Rachel Porges, Chief Innovation & Brand Development Officer at Nom Nom, said the format — internally nicknamed "Nombles" — gives pet parents flexible portion control without sacrificing the veterinarian-developed nutrition profile the brand centres its positioning around.
Channel and Pack Strategy
The go-to-market packaging strategy is differentiated by channel. E-commerce customers will receive a 6.0-pound bag optimised for direct-to-consumer shipping economics, while specialty pet retailers will stock a 3.5-pound upright bag suited to shelf display. That split reflects a broader industry pattern in premium pet food: DTC and subscription formats command larger pack sizes and higher basket values, while specialty retail favours presentation and manageable price points at shelf.
Nom Nom already distributes through Chewy, Amazon, and select PetSmart locations and has cumulatively delivered close to 40 million meals via subscription and retail channels since its 2014 founding. The Scoopable Meal Clusters launch extends nomnomnow.com into a format category — loose frozen clusters — that has seen rapid growth in adjacent segments such as frozen raw and gently cooked, as pet owners increasingly seek human-grade-adjacent quality with reduced preparation complexity.
Category Context
The fresh-frozen and minimally processed pet food segment has expanded sharply over the past several years, driven by the same premiumisation and health-and-wellness trends reshaping human food and beverage retail. Operators in the specialty pet channel have been under pressure to stock higher-margin, differentiated frozen formats as conventional kibble faces margin compression. A format that thaws in 15 minutes rather than overnight could meaningfully expand the addressable buyer pool for the segment, particularly among time-constrained urban consumers who have been the slowest to convert from dry food.
For Mars Petcare — whose broader portfolio includes Royal Canin, Pedigree, and Whiskas, and whose combined Mars and Kellanova net sales exceeded $65.0 billion in 2025 — the Nom Nom cluster format represents a lower-friction entry point into premium frozen without cannibalising the brand's existing gently cooked subscription business. The SuperZoo launch timing positions the product for fall planogram reviews at specialty retailers.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
